3 February 2019

Becky registered for a couple of cooking classes for a gift for Brandan's birthday.  Our first class, Middle Eastern cooking, was Wednesday night.  The class is taught by Chef Emily, a retired professional chef and former instructor at Le Cordon Bleu.  Chef Billy was her assistant.  Twelve students met in the community college cafeteria to learn how to cook a middle eastern feast.  The class divided into 3 teams and each team cooked part of the meal.  We were on the baking team and learned how to make pita bread and a cake.  In the photo, Chef Billy is showing Linda, Farris and Brandan how to proof yeast for pita bread. 

Chef Emily showed us how to whip egg whites for the cake with a very large bowl and very large whisk.

 We had detailed instructions for each recipe and the two chefs would rotate between the teams to keep us on track.  In this photo, Linda is spreading the very thick, almond filled cake batter in a pan.

 Here's a photo of Chef Emily.  Her long cooking career includes time spent working as a cook in Israel and traveling throughout the middle east.  In this photo she is checking on the soup.

In this photo Chef Emily is helping Brandan bake the pita bread.  The pita bread baked in a very hot oven and was done in only a few minutes.

Here's a perfect pita bread, fresh from the oven.

 The class started at 5:30 pm and by 8 pm, everything was finished and ready to eat.  In the center of the table are the pita bread, a cucumber and yogurt salad, baba ganoush (an eggplant spread) and chicken in pomegranate walnut sauce.  The cups at the edge of the table are filled with dried fruit soup.  We also ate rice with spinach and tomatoes and a semolina almond cake in cinnamon lemon syrup.  Everything was very delicious and full of rich flavors.

The cooking class was great fun.  We learned some new recipes, ate a delicious meal and enjoyed getting to know some new people.  We're looking forward to a Thai cooking class in a few weeks.

Helen's violin group is going to NYC in two months to play at Carnegie Hall.  The group has worked very hard to memorize their half hour program.  They played a concert Thursday night as a thank you to the church that lets them use their building for rehearsals.  The group played with skill, unity and dynamic sound.

We think they're ready for Carnegie Hall, however Faina will spend the next two months polishing them to perfection!

 Gibson can play church basketball now that he's a deacon.  He looks forward to playing every Saturday.

 Abe plays on the same team.

 Five of us had the special experience of going to the temple together on Friday night.  It was Gibson's first time to do baptisms at the temple.  Abe baptized Gibson and Helen and Brandan baptized Abe.